Outtakes of recording session 28 2 20 at All Saints Tooting

Longbow Peter Sheppard Skaerved – Violin Diana Mathews -Viola Stefan Östersjö – Guitar Harry Buckoke Bass Viol Evie Littlefair – Cello Olwen Foulkes – Recorders / Engineer- Jonathan Haskell/Musical Supervision – David Gorton

An introduction:

I have worked closely with David Gorton over many years. Our collaboration has resulted in a long running set of Caprices, String Quartets, an Oboe Quintet, Duos, Trios, and works for String Ensemble. David is fascinated with how he, and we, converse with the past, and how various pasts talk to each other, and much of his work reflects these dialogues.

‘Consort Set’ is just such a conversation, with a number of integers. F William Lawes (1602-1645) was the “musician in ordinary for lutes and voices” to Charles I (whom he had known for many years). As a Royalist, he took up arms in the Civil War, and was killed in a horrifyingly random incident near Chester. As you will hear, some of the movements of this set are settings, moving towards transformations of the original works, whilst, in others, the modern voice, or is it the modern voice (with composers like these two it’s difficult to tell) intrudes, interferes, appears, submerges, transfigures the music in many different ways. At such moments we are listening to Gorton, and Lawes takes part, or are we? It’s magical to play, and to listen to.

Enjoy

David Gorton – Consort Set in Five Parts (After William Lawes) (2019)